The most recent study on telecommunications in the territory will explore just how much it will cost to have a alternative fibre optic link to the south.

The study was announced yesterday as being done through a partnership between the Yukon government and four First Nation development corporations operating as Dempster Energy Service: the Na-Cho Nyak Dun Development Corporation, the Tr'ondek Hwechin's Chief Isaac Incorporated, the Gwich'in Development Corporation of the Northwest Territories and the Vuntut business arm 40782 Yukon Inc.

The territory and Dempster Energy Services will fund the estimated $130,000 cost of the study, with the territory paying 75 per cent of the cost, Economic Development Minister Currie Dixon said in an interview yesterday.

The First Nations development corporations will work with the Planetworks Consulting Corporation to develop the study, expected to be complete in November.

"An alternative fibre optic link would improve the availability and reliability of communications services and enable competition and innovation in the telecommunications sector in Yukon,” Dixon said in a statement. "It would also support our growing knowledge sector and contribute to the diversification of Yukon's economy.”

The study will focus on a route from Whitehorse to Juneau and down to Seattle, which Dixon explained was chosen over the Canadian south because it is the closest geographical location.

Another option that may be considered in the future, Dixon said, would be the potential MacKenzie Valley route in the Northwest Territories, with the Yukon's link coming up through the Dempster Highway.

This study is one of a number that have been done over the past year pointing to the need for improved telecommunications in the territory.

Those studies resulted in the new technology and telecommunications directorate within the department which has a goal of strengthening the IT sector and improving telecommunications.

In this case, the "bankable feasibility study provides a greater degree of detail and certainty than a regular feasibility study and will enable private investors and government funding agencies to determine the economic and technical feasibility of establishing an alternate fibre optic line from Yukon to the south...,” reads a government press release issued yesterday.

The announcement came just days after last week's release of a report by the Conference Board of Canada that pointed to significant issues and work that needs to be done in telecommunications across the North.

Mapping the Long-term Options for Canada's North: Telecommunications and Broadband Connectivity found that the major concern in the North is to develop infrastructure that's "reliable, scalable and supportive of locally affordable services.”

Most northern communities, it was noted, do not have the most up to date service standards and that limits economic diversity opportunities for those communities.

That report, said Dixon in an interview early this week, is both timely and appropriate, coming out as the Yukon government is continuing its efforts to improve telecommunications in the territory.

Dixon pointed out the directorate focused on information technology has been developed within the department and is now fully staffed or close to being fully staffed.

In recognition of the important role industry plays, the government is also investing $50,000 annually in the Yukon Information Technology Industry Society, he said, adding the report along with two others the government did last year point to actions the government should be taking.

"We made this a priority,” Dixon said, noting the Yukon government will continue working to improve telecommunications in the territory, including considering the redundant link to the south should the primary link go down.